Does fretboard wood make a consistent difference in tone that you can hear?

[tfer]

Found this - it's not a simple board swap. A luthier built 2 identical guitars, swapped ALL hardware between the 2, and edited them together.

It's a long series, but here's the completed project.



If you can't hear the difference, I feel really sorry for you.

 

[bucephylus]

I would have to answer both yes and no. The hardness of the fingerboard quite definitely produces a response I can feel when playing. I happen to prefer ebony, because of the hardness. But, at the same time, it does not seem practical to be able to discriminate between different fingerboards on recordings. I certainly can not differentiate on a recording.

So, yes, the fingerboard matters to me as a player for instrument response; no, I don't think you can normally hear a difference on recordings.

 

[mellowinman]

I am going to draw upon my considerable expertise and inform you that I don't know.

 

[chris_b]

Whether it's maple or rosewood or pau ferro or ebony or ebanol or carbon fiber or a weirwood tree's face carved by the children of the forest into a fretboard.....does the material of which the fretboard is made make a difference that you can hear?

If you are working in a studio or close miked environment and making music where the quality of the sound is important, probably yes.

Else, on a pub gig, anywhere near your average drummer, in a acoustically challenged room, then probably no.

 

[mellowinman]

To play devil's advocate, one could suggest he may have some vested interest in contributing to this sort of lore/mystique to wood selection, bass construction etc.....much like Michael Tobias, one could argue, has reason to support the idea that layering of body woods contributes specific tonal recipes/magic.

I always wanted to play Devil's Advocate, but I have always been unclear on the rules.

 

[JRA]

not sure what you mean.

when an expert is found to be 'wrong' = the expert acquires 'new' knowledge and becomes even more of an expert!

Man this subject is touchier than gun control in America.

maybe. for some.

for me, the question is: what does Gorn want?

 

[toowrongfoo]

I want to say something clever but I can't think of anything. So, I'll just post this useless empty post.

 

[ThinCrappyTone]

when an expert is found to be 'wrong' = the expert acquires 'new' knowledge and becomes even more of an expert!


maybe. for some.

for me, the question is: what does Gorn want?

Fair enough good sir

 

[Member8675309]

Attach a fret to a vice, tap it. Then, attach a fret between rubber in a vice, tap it. The densities of wood may change the reaction of frets on a board. There are a lot of controls that would need to be considered in order to establish a valid experiment/conclusion, but I do hear a difference, not that it is extreme though.

 

[LeoFromPortland]

I switch my necks out all the time. The maple necks have more bite than rosewood.

And this opinion helps resolve the question, IMHO. I've played quite a few different basses over the years, but their configuration was different enough that it would have been impossible to tell what part of it was the fretboard. I had just assumed there must be an audible difference, but I think that came from my youth on piano where tonewoods obviously do matter a lot.
I'm gonna watch this thread with interest. I've seen the Scott Groves video debunking the idea of tonewoods for electric instruments using magnetic pickups. But I doubt the answer is in the extremes.

Anyway interesting, and you changing out necks and being able to tell seems like would be a good indicator.

 

[LiveToWin]

I think this poll needs another option. "Wood affects the tone, but not critically"
Rosewood is warmer and maple is brighter, You guys all proved this here:
Can You Tell The Difference??? MAPLE vs. ROSEWOOD

This test is wrong right from the start.
He swapped the necks. This. And here we got some room for different results results:
- Nut Material - Believe it or not, nut can affect your tone while you fret instrument. When you change the nut - you change the resonant frequency of your bass. Even the two plastic nuts can have different resonant frequency. One can weight more and this will be enough. This is the reason when you attach something heavier/lower weight you can move deadspots - You are changing resonant frequency.

- Different frets - same as above - you are changing resonant frequency.

- Different keys - same as above - you are changing resonant frequency.

- Consistency of picking - It's hard to be consistent in 100%, harder strum - brighter attack.

- Actually person who did this test, right from the start tell people that there will be two different woods (maple and rosewood). So with brighter sounding sample people just contribute it to maple and so on.
When he will not told which fretboard wood he used - the test will be more reliable. Because, if the difference between maple and rosewood fingerboard is so noticeable, you can blindly tell them apart, right ?

Tests like this should be run in very controlled enviroment. This can exclude any variables which can contribute to result.


Here is funny test :


This guy literally REMOVED whole neck, with fingerboard. And guess what - zero difference. You can see there was frequency analyzer so it's not conjecture.

 

[Mantis Tobaggan]

I have two fender Ps and the one with maple fret board is definitely brighter but it also has slightly different electronics.

 

[Alan Ace Cooper]

I love the sound of Maple and I am equally happy with the brighter tone of Ebony. I have a Devon 5 string bass that he made using a Wenge fingerboard and I instantly fell in love with the Wenge. It's not a pretty looking wood, but it's tonality (to my ears) sits perfectly between Maple and Ebony. I also have another Devon that has a Wenge neck with an Ebony fingerboard. Sonically, that bass is like having a Modulus with slightly less "stinging" highs.

 

[ATLbassist]

I like this comparison video. It equates to what I've tried testing on my own: A very sublte increase in highs / grit that can only really be heard in solo performance. It might translate to a recording situation, but definitely not live.



Side note: This guy's channel is full of fun bass stuff.

 

[bdplaid]

On a fretted electric bass the string vibrates between the metal fret and the metal bridge piece, and that vibration is transmitted magnetically to the pickup. Maybe I'm missing something, but I cannot logically see how the wood of the fingerboard could have an effect on the sound in that chain.

Fretless could be a different story altogether.

You're only thinking of one half of the loop - the string also causes the wood to vibrate as well. If it made no difference, that means the wood would be rigid, and there would be no such thing as a dead spot, which is a sympathetic vibration in the neck to frequencies at which various notes vibrate.

Mute the strings, and tap on the body or neck with the bass plugged into an amp. You hear the tap. That's the wood you are hearing. That's why it makes a difference.

Everything in a bass is a filter of one sort or another, which combine to make up it's tone.

 

[jnsnj]

Wenge feels really nice so I'll tell myself it sounds better too.

 

[Turnaround]

The question being asked is whether the choice of wood makes a difference in tone "that you can hear". I can hear it. Some others can't.

 

[LiveToWin]

You're only thinking of one half of the loop - the string also causes the wood to vibrate as well. If it made no difference, that means the wood would be rigid, and there would be no such thing as a dead spot, which is a sympathetic vibration in the neck to frequencies at which various notes vibrate.

THIS.

Wood just can't magically add something to the tone. It can only ABSORB.
When people say "Oh, I can feel this guitar strongly vibrates unplugged, it must be good!", they are actually wrong. In this situation wood absorb more energy from the strings and you will get less sustain, simple as that.

 

[oren]

The strings vibrate on the resonator (neck / body) which affect the overtones and harmonics that the strings emanate. The transducers pick up these vibrations while also coloring the sound.

Perhaps, but I have a hard time believing that fingerboard,wood makes a discernible difference in tone. Acoustics, different story.

Fun Fact
There's also a difference between round woumd strings and flat wounds ;-)

Yeah, but that's a difference in what is transmitted directly to a pickup.

 

[tfer]

THIS.

Wood just can't magically add something to the tone. It can only ABSORB.
When people say "Oh, I can feel this guitar strongly vibrates unplugged, it must be good!", they are actually wrong. In this situation wood absorb more energy from the strings and you will get less sustain, simple as that.

Well put.